I too thought of this. It will be nice to have a positive attitude on the team. It seems like the players have forgotten how to have fun this entire year. The shake-up i hope althought not a huge deal talent wise, might just be the thing they needed.

Yeah, great memories of their last ever college game together down there in the Georgia Dome at the Final 4. Juan Dixon owning Hinrich. Chris Wilcox owning Gooden. Kirk even fouled out that night, how appropriate. Someone had to take home that 2002 National Championship.

Gooden is a huge upgrade over Wallace and can actually score. 11.3ppg is nothing special but neither was Ben Wallace. Hopefully this energizes the team and we get something done. I do not understand how you could not like this trade. What did you think we would get for Wallace?

Man, that game single-handedly made Wilcox a lottery pick. Those 3 first half blocks on Gooden jumpstarted all the hype. And when he dominated Jared Jeffries in the title game there was no way he was coming back.

And it's funny you should bring up back to back titles because the Terps should've won 2 straight ourselves. Blowing a 22 point lead in the Final 4 to Duke was perhaps the most agonizing experience I've ever had as a sports fan, especially in light of blowing that 10 point lead with a minute to play at the old Cole Field House to those same damn Dookies just 2 months earlier in the regular season. Jason (Jay) Williams blatantly threw Juan Dixon to the ground on that last steal and 3. No call. Unreal.

Drew Gooden remembers the first time he met Kirk Hinrich. They were roommates at a high school all-star game in Los Angeles.

Both were headed for Kansas, but they didn't seem to be a natural fit to forge a lasting friendship.

"He was a real quiet guy," Gooden said of the 18-year-old Hinrich. "Never really spoke too much, kept to himself, stayed at home a lot. I was more of the outgoing type of dude. He was quiet, but he opened up as the years went on at Kansas."

Gooden, a native of Oakland, Calif., ended up forming a strong bond with his two classmates from Iowa, Hinrich and Nick Collison. Based on pro success, that group qualifies as one of the best recruiting classes in history.

Gooden pointed out that all three turned out to be lottery picks. Gooden was the No. 4 pick of the 2002 draft, while Hinrich went at No. 7 and Collison was chosen by Seattle at No. 12 a year later.

Hinrich and Gooden were reunited last week when the Bulls acquired the 6-foot-10 power forward from Cleveland in a three-team, 11-player deal.

"I first met Kirk in '99," Gooden said. "Almost 10 years later to be here playing on the same NBA team from meeting him that first day, we've come a long way."

Hinrich has painful memories of their freshman year at Kansas, when the group struggled to adjust to college and the Jayhawks endured a 24-10 season, disappointing by KU standards.

"We weren't very good," Hinrich said. "Nobody had really ever lost before. The adjustments of guys not playing as much as they wanted or just trying to fit into coach (Roy) Williams' system, it wasn't easy.

"It was probably one of my toughest times. I look back on it now and laugh. It was really kind of a turning point in both of our careers."

Gooden doesn't remember his freshman year of college being particularly pleasant, either.

"I remember many conversations me and Kirk had on the bench about transferring," Gooden said. "Like, 'We can't take it anymore and we want to go somewhere else.' But at the end of the day, it worked out well for us."

Not long after Gooden first walked into the Bulls' locker room Sunday in Houston, it became obvious that he's a free spirit. His Amish-style beard, grown in unison with Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson, is only the first clue.

"I'm the type of guy, I like to crack jokes," Gooden said. "I know when it's time to get serious. But keeping the team loose, I think that's the type of atmosphere me and a couple other guys in Cleveland created for our team. I hope to do the same thing here."

Asked if Gooden acted the same way in college, Hinrich just laughed and predicted some humorous interviews may be on the way.

"He's always been like that," Hinrich said. "You love him for it. We just looked at it as free entertainment, being around him. He's always been pure comedy for us."

It's not easy to find a college recruiting class that can compete with Hinrich, Gooden and Collison when it comes to the NBA draft.

Michigan's Fab Five had just two lottery picks, though Jalen Rose was a near miss. Houston's Phi Slamma Jamma team brought in Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler together, but there wasn't a third high draft pick.

The same year Hinrich and Gooden headed to Kansas, Duke was thought to have one of the all-time greatest recruiting classes. Jay Williams and Mike Dunleavy were two of the top three picks in 2002, but the best player in the group, Carlos Boozer, went in the second round.

Duke's Class of '97, with Elton Brand, Shane Battier and William Avery, produced three lottery picks. So did Florida's '04 group of Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer.

The Bulls finally got a chance to conduct practice with all four newcomers Tuesday, going 90 minutes at Conseco Fieldhouse in advance of today's game with the Pacers. Gooden averaged 14.5 points and 8.0 rebounds in his first two games with the Bulls.

I wouldn't call Hinrich, Gooden, and Collison the best recruiting class. I guess if you factor in 3 bodies as opposed to 2, it counts, but the ones mentioned in the article with two players are already better in my eyes.

The fab five with Webber, Rose, Howard, King and Jackson. How can you say any other recruiting class is better than that one? Four of the five made it to the NBA and three of them had very very very very respectable careers.